Auto-enrolment Pension League Table

AdamHB

Auto-enrolment Pension League Table

Does this exist? 

I have recently been asked by a newly appointed manager (helping to setup a new business) to research which is the best auto-enrolment pension to choose for her employees to be (she is also an employee and not an owner). 

While I understand that is a complex question with various considerations, I was wondering if a simple comparison site exists that shows clearly how the various pension schemes have performed for their members over the years. Cold hard figures. We can see comparison tables for all sorts of stuff, surely it exits for pension schemes, and I just haven't found it? 

Mark_d

How a pension performs depends on where the member chooses to invest their funds.  I'm sure no other colleague at my company invests their pension in the same selection of funds as I do, or in the same percentages.

ali_bear

Dunno. Start with the big providers such as Aviva and do some shopping around? 

penners324

I think your better off looking at features, ease of use and compatibility with the payroll system. Then the selection of investment funds (bearing in mind most employees dont really care to so a huge list of available funds will actually put most off).

Something that is easy to use for both employers and employees  being essential 

dunstonh

While I understand that is a complex question with various considerations, I was wondering if a simple comparison site exists that shows clearly how the various pension schemes have performed for their members over the years.

Defined contribution pension schemes do not perform.     The investments within the pension are where the performance is.

Some auto-enrolment schemes give 30,000 investment options.    Some give just 1.

You then have investment risk.
Lower risk investments tend to give lower long term returns
Higher risk investments tend to hav higher long term returns (caveat that some high risk areas are focused in certain industries that can have long period of underperformance with periods of outperformance)

However, low risk investments may have short term periods where they are better than high risk.   

You then have cycles.   The last 12 years (to 2024) has seen US equities as the best performing equities country/region.  So, any investment that has been heavy in US equities has given the best returns.   Anything lighter in US equities has given less.

But before you start looking for US equities heavy options, you need to be aware that these things cycle.  The 12 years from 2000-2012 saw US equities being one of the worst areas.      That cycling between US vs the rest goes back generations.     And 2025 YTD, has seen the rest better than the US.

So, if you are measuring by performance, you need to be aware of all these issues.

We can see comparison tables for all sorts of stuff, surely it exits for pension schemes, and I just haven't found it? 

If you narrowed it down to say 5 auto-enrolment schemes and all 5 are whole of market, then performance doesnt come into it.

If every auto-enrolment scheme has global trackers on it, then it doesnt matter. There may be tiny differences depending on what they track but it doesn't matter.        If they have a range of multi-asset funds that use underlying passives, then it doesn't really matter.

Don't get hooked up on performance unless you are shopping at the bottom end of the market with single fund providers.  If you are considering providers with 100+ funds, then don't waste your time examining historic performance.

MyRealNameToo

AdamHB said:

I have recently been asked by a newly appointed manager (helping to setup a new business) to research which is the best auto-enrolment pension to choose for her employees to be (she is also an employee and not an owner). 

How is she defining best? 

There is no league table, they are a poor tool even for simple consumer products let alone for something as complex as an employers pension scheme. Employees, Employer and Shareholders may all have a very different view on what "best" means. 

leosayer

My previous employer used HL which meant that we could select from all the funds, ETFs, Gilts etc. that are available on their platform. Like any other auto enrolment scheme, they also have their default funds.

I really appreciated that because most DC schemes have a highly restricted list of funds. They also offered services to direct after-tax pay into an ISA and GIA if necessary.

https://www.hl.co.uk/workplace/workplace-pension

I have no idea if they're any good from an employer's perspective however I'm sure my employer wouldn't have moved unless there was a good reason ie. reduced admin and other costs.

JoeCrystal

AdamHB said:

Auto-enrolment Pension League Table

Does this exist? 

I have recently been asked by a newly appointed manager (helping to setup a new business) to research which is the best auto-enrolment pension to choose for her employees to be (she is also an employee and not an owner). 

While I understand that is a complex question with various considerations, I was wondering if a simple comparison site exists that shows clearly how the various pension schemes have performed for their members over the years. Cold hard figures. We can see comparison tables for all sorts of stuff, surely it exits for pension schemes, and I just haven't found it? 

She should be paying for proper advisers to do this for her.

Marcon

AdamHB said:

Auto-enrolment Pension League Table

Does this exist? 

No.

AdamHB said:

I have recently been asked by a newly appointed manager (helping to setup a new business) to research which is the best auto-enrolment pension to choose for her employees to be (she is also an employee and not an owner). 

While I understand that is a complex question with various considerations, I was wondering if a simple comparison site exists that shows clearly how the various pension schemes have performed for their members over the years. Cold hard figures. We can see comparison tables for all sorts of stuff, surely it exits for pension schemes, and I just haven't found it? 

Rather than looking for a unicorn, why not educate her a bit and explain (as others have above) that defined contribution pension schemes don't 'perform' per se - it is the choice of funds which dictates the return.

I suspect, if you can find a diplomatic way to phrase it, that 'best' will probably be 'simplest to operate' given her absence of understanding. 

gm0

Apart from the issue discussed already on performance of investments.  From a sponsoring employer perspective the relevant concerns are reputation/integrity, cost, whether employees will like/value it vs what they would experience elsewhere. 

There are pension industry feature assessments and similar things.   As an example (I am not recommending them as such - I have read some of their stuff which is in the zone you are discussing.  

Example:  https://thelangcat.co.uk/

They (used to anyway) - publish their assessments of pensions providers - their channel strategies, product features etc. etc.   And their business model is (or at least was) not consumer - but selling "advice" to pensions companies on where they are behind, could improve, benchmarking all that stuff